alairas al-ain. power play, delegates at china's communist congress decide who should stand among the next leaders. members are performing the roles they have been assigned in an orchestrated transition of

power. delegates are wrapping up their national congress in beijing. behind the scenes some are debating the extent of the leadership changes. many wonder whether hu jintao will attempt to keep hold of some power. delegates meet every five years for congress. they revise the party constitution to include president huh's theory. delegates will select about 200 members of the central committee. they will in turn select a new leader, something that only happens once in a decade. much has already been decided. communist leaders sent out signals for months that vice xi jinping will take over as the party's general secretary. the central committee will select the standing committee, the apex of power in china. nine people currently sit on the board. that could be reduced to seven.

of the current members only xi and vice premiere lu are expected to remain. some insist he will retire to give the new leader greater influence over the military and a firmer grip on power. many in and outside china are curious about who will fill all of these leadership roles. a human rights campaigner says the only way the country can move forward is to move towards democracy. nhk world has the story. >> this is one of the democracy activists being watched closely by the chinese government. he has been embargoed in environmental issues and campaigned for the rights of hiv patients. in 2007 was arrested after he

the government on the internet. he was charged. in 2008 he was sentenced to three and a half years in prison. he finally returned to his home in beijing in june last year. >> translator: the communist party doesn't care about people's suffering, only protecting its one party dictatorship and its own profits. we must transform this country into a democracy. this will lead to benefits for every chinese citizen. >> who has not stopped campaigning. he was involved in helping the blind active ace chung leave for the united states in may. he using the internet mostly for his activism. >> translator: the communist

party is the biggest violator of the rights of the chinese people. >> reporter: however, his activities are monitored closely. and he continues to be harassed. one time he was attacked by police agents as he left his house. another time he found the tires of his car had been flattened. his wife is also an activist. in this video she's being obstructed as they leave the house. the harassment has extended to the whole family. the situation got so bad that his wife left for hong kong in september together with their daughter who was 4 at the time. they were worried that they were no longer safe in beijing.

>> translator: i'm happy that my wife and daughter will be somewhere that's safe and free. but i'm really going to miss them. >> reporter: eleven days after they left on september 18th, hu was placed under house arrest. a week later on october 25th, ahead of the communist party congress hu was moved to a province 1,200 kilometers south of beijing. the authorities are still watching him. speaking by telephone, hu had this to say.

ahead of the party congress many human rights lawyers and campaigners like hu were forced to leave beijing or placed under strict surveillance. the world's second biggest economy, china's international influence is continuing to grow. but there has been no change in the way it treats citizens who speak out. nhk world, beijing. >> one of the biggest critics weighed in, too. the dalai lama told about 130 japanese lawmakers they are wrong to fear at this bet an religious faith is promoting independence. they're urging china to stop violating rights in the region.

>> in narrow minded communist officials they feel tibetan buddhist culture, buddhist faith some you see fear. that's a source of separate -- danger of separation. >> the dalai lama said tibetans are trying to preserve their culture. they're not threatening to become independent. a spokesperson for the chinese foreign ministry had little sympathy. >> translator: >> translator: the dalai lama is a political refugee aiming to defy the country in the guise of religious activity. >> hong said the government condemns japanese right wing forces that openly support the dalai lama's anti-china activities. he says this is interfering with china's internal affairs. cradle of culture, economic powerhouse. many enjoy the fruits of prosperity along the path to a

new china. but millions are missing out. at a time of growing public discontent, members of the communist party are choosing their new leaders. "newsle" crespondents are reporting from the party's national congress. don't miss our special coverage, china, the next generation, 8 p.m. japan time here on "newsline." >> france has become the first european nation to recognize syria's newly formed opposition coalition. he says the country will consider arming the opposition in the group forms a transitional government. >> translator: what took place in doha is very important. a coalition was formed. i announce here that france recognizes the syrian national coalition as the sole representative of the syrian people. >> french leaders have been

reluctant to provide weapons. they said rebel groups were fragmented. representatives of more than 50 opposition groups formed their coalition in qatar on sunday. six member nations of the council including qatar and sai arab alrea bacd the group. the fighting in syria is forcing more and more people to flee. the united nations high commissioner for refugees says more than 400,000 have crossed borders since the uprising began last year. unhcr staff say people are pouring into turkey, lebanon, and other neighboring countries. they say 2.5 million displaced citizens need humanitarian aid, based on information from the syrian arab red crescent. an tifist says they're having difficulty getting access to food, water, and other necessities. they say the fighting is prevent aid worker from reaching the needy. government and opposition forces

have shown little sign of letting up. planes pounded ras al-ain in the northeast on tuesday pushing many toward the turkish border. eurozone officials are taking a small step towards unifying their banking system. yuko joins us now. what will happen if necessity suck side? >>fficlsill be ae t help directly troubled banks and not go through their government. they were just at a starting point because finance chiefs of the european union agreed to set up by the end of this year a legal framework that would allow supervision of the banking industry. the move will set the stage for a unified oversight of commercial banks. the aim is boost the stability of the financial system across the eurozone. the finance ministers of the 27 eu nations met to discuss measures for tackling the region's debt problems. the officials agreed to compile a final proposal by the next

ministerial meeting scheduled for early december. eu leaders decided last month to allow the european central bank to supervise all commercial banks across the eurozone and plan to phase in the changes next year. opinions are divided among member states over the pace of the implementation and the extent of the central bank's oversight authority. at tuesday's meeting finance ministers also discussed tax on financial transactions. 11 nations including germany and france confirmed they wish to proceed with the levee on stock and bond trading. they aim to gain approval at the next eu summit in mid-december but britain opposing the measure. let's check on the markets for this wednesday morning. on the tokyo foreign exchange the yen is trading slightly lower against the dollar and the euro. the dollar/yen is currently changing hands at 79.45 to 48 and the euro/yen is quoted at 100.98 to 99. sources say 2r5iders are buying

back the euro as worries about the debt situation in greece have somewhat eased after the country had a successful treasury bill auction on tuesday. onto the stock markets. share prices are little changed in tokyo on wednesday morning. the nikkei index now stands at 8,660. that's just down .38 points. some investors are buying back recent decliners and many are staying on the sidelines as there are few incentives for active trading. other markets in the asia pacific region kospi is down 4/10 of a percent and australia, the benchmark index up about 2/10 of a percent, changing hands now at 4,387. major japanese retailer eon says it will reopen the supermarket in chen tau this month after an attack by an

anti-japan protesters. it was shut down in september after being destroyed by protesters who opposed the nationalization of the senkaku islands. the president said the store will fully reopen on november 24th. it had partially resumed operations early last month. he added aon attempts to develop a stronger relationship with consumers by making more contributions to local communities. they say sales have 235u8 len 12% since the protests began. that is all for me. for now. i will leave you with the market figures.

atelte images sw north korea may be pressing ahead with the development of long range missiles. u.s. researchers at johns hopkins university say the country has conducted at least two tests of large rock elt motors since the failed launch in april. one satellite image shows the removal of field tags and the appearance of exhaust screens. they say the sign tests have been carried out. another image shows similar discolorations and stains and an object that appears to be a large rocket engine. the analysis says that construction activity is under way launch an eve bigger rocket. it warns that north korea may start a new round of nuclear and rocket tests in the first half of next year.

two south korean presidential candidates who joined forces for next month's election are thrashing out which one will stand. unaffiliated politician xiu and mu ching of the democratic united party struck a deal they won't stand against each other. south koreans have shown in polls a joint candidate would match the front-runner from the ruling party. members of both camps are currently discussing how to decide on who should stand. local media have proposed the idea of a tv debate and an opinion poll. both sides say a decision will be made by this month's registration deadline. an enjoy from afghanistan asked pakistan for help in establishing peace talks with the taliban. he was expected to ask pakistani officials to use their influence to start a dialog. they're working against a deadline, the international forces and their combat missions

in two years. >> afghan enjoy heads the country's council for peace talks with the taliban. he arrived in islam bad on monday. he was expected to ask pakistan to broker talks between the afghan government and the taliban. >> translator: we will be talking to them about how to carry the reconciliation process forward a als about how pakistan can help in bringing peace and stability to afghanistan. this is an extremely important visit. >> the taliban has a positive attitude to talks with the united states, but it has so far ignored the after began government's proposals for a peace deal. the insurgent group views the government as a puppet of the u.s.

before the u.s. led invasion of afghanistan in 2001, pakistan was a supporter of the former taliban regime. afghanistan believes the country still has influence over the insurgents. a former head of pakistani intelligence says pakistan could play a significant role in the peace process but was leader of the directorate for interservice it is intelligence or isi in the late 1990s. >> i am sure it has context and can help, definitely can help, the nearest one. >> international forces are training afghan soldiers and policemen to take responsibility for their country's security. there is a high turnover rate and many trainees lack greater skills.

doults have been raised over whether enough personnel can be made ready before voting troops bir the end of 2014. the latest move by the afghan government may reflect president hamid karzai's sense of urgency to get the taliban to the negotiating table. environment 58 researchers from southeast asia are sounding the alarm over marine pollution. they gathered in jakarta to share their research into the state of local seas. the indonesian government organized the seminar with the japan sociy fo the pmoti of science. about 150 people attended. japanese researchers say they found plastic garbage last year in the stomach of a seal of indones indonesia's island.

they say the garbage can easily accumulate on the deep sea floor as currents are weak. some researchers say they found metals in the seabed in the manila bay and others reported finding chemicals in the java sea much indonesia. emerging economic powers stilltruggling with poverty. emboldened citizens demanding democracy, the threat of violence, the push for peace, the shadow of conflict. get news and insight on south and southeast asia every weekday live from bangkok, only on nhk world "newsline". the mayor of an island in the east china sea is trying to diffuse a dispute over fishing rights. he is visiting taiwan to talk about access to waters off the senkaku islands. he administers the territory. taiwan and china claim the islands. he visited the town of seoul. they have been sister cities for 17 years. he met with the suao mayor and

representatives of the fishing cooperative. >> translator: there are various disputes over the senkaku islands between japan and taiwan. i believe our two communities can resolve the issues one by one. >> he said he hopes to resolve the dispute. fishing boats from su eered japanese waters off the islands in september. they're protesting japan's decision to national lies the islands. official from japan and taiwan began talks on fishing in the area 16 years ago. the talks have been suspended for more than three and a half years. people in northern japan are dealing with stormy weather, strong gusts are causing disruptions there. maya shoji explains. >> northern japan and the western flank of japan are dealing with rough weather. they're being hammer the with strong gusts and lots of precipitation over much of the

country and down towards kumamoto we found gusts of 80 kilometers per hour that has been reported in the past 24 hours. here in around tokyo region the prefecture has actually has a report of record-breaking amount, 100 millimeters, in the past 24 hours. for the month of november it is a record breaker and across much of the western flank things will still be very wet. on top of what we have already been seeing, aitional amounts of 80 to 100 millimeters of precipitation will be accumulating in tohoku as well as kanke regions. any of these could be turning into snow due to the upper cold air building over much of the country. even in the low-lying grounds we may see the first snow of the season on our thursday including

tokyo and finding the temperatures dipping down into the single digits for low ove night hours and really chilly and if it does bring down those temperatures to single digits, it will not first of this season. so winter really is starting to kick in here in south korea also rain showers could turn to snow. down towards the tropics still very summer like. we have tropical depression that formed over the south china sea. this is moving into a westerly past towards the southeastern coast of the indochina peninsula. southern vietnam has been feeling the strong gusts and the high wes picki up and heavy rain will be building as the system moves closer and approaches the region and that warm water is actually feeding the system so it is going to be intensifying into a tropical storm status in the next 4 hours so we'll keep a close high on it. pa barn cobb at 33.

seoul at 6 for high and hence the snow. here in the european continent flooding has been affecting much ofhe northern italy and i know a lot of people are still waiting. let's take a look the at a video from there. residents of northern italy are dealing with the aftermath of serious flooding that occurred over the weekend. in al bin amore than 800 have been evacuated. the floods have damaged agricultural industries which are the core of the area's economy. i think those cars weren't actually supposed to be there and so people are trying to recover from this flooding situation. it is not alleviated yet. let's pull back and show you this is good news to italy where the precipitation will finally be tapering off and the dry weather will be remaining towards the weekend.

we have another system over towards northern africa and that will be moving west towards the western east towards the western mediterranean sea area. southern italy will be feeling those showers in the nex24 to 48. temperature wise madrid at 18 degrees and paris at 10 and very chilly and biting cold in moscow with 3 for your high. here is our extended forecast.

our lead story this hour, members of china's communist party are wrapping up their national congress in beijing. many delegates wonder whether departing president huh jin pou will keep hold of power. they include a president with a theory on sustainable growth and they give the same importance to his principles as those of other past leaders. delegates will select about 200 members of the central committee. those members will in turn select a new leader, something that only happens once in a decade. much has already been decided. communist leaders have sent out signals for months that vice president xi jinping will take over as the general secretary. the central committee will then select the standing committee, the apex of power in china. nine people currently sit on the board. that could be reduced to seven. of the current members only xi

and khung are expected to remain. some inside the party believe president hu may stay on. others insist he will retire to influence over the military and a firmer grip on power. france has become the first european nation to recognize syria's newly formed opposition coalition. president francois says his country will consider arming the opposition if the group forms a transitional government. >> translator: what took place in doha is very important. a coalition was formed. i announce here that france recognizing the syrian national coalition as the sole representative of the syrian people. >> french leaders have been reluctant to provide ep weapons. they said rebel groups were fragmented. representatives of more than 50 opposition groups formed the

coalition in qatar on sunday. six member nations of the gulf cooperation council including qatar and saudi arabia already backed the group. that concludes this edition of "newsline." i am catherine kobayashi in tokyo. thanks very much for joining us.